Brazil plans $25 bn ethanol investment

TradingMarkets.com
Thu. September 25, 2008; Posted: 11:45 AM

Rio de Janeiro, Sep 25, 2008 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Brazil plans to invest $25 billion to build new ethanol plants to meet domestic demand for the alternative fuel that is expected to grow 150 percent in the next decade and has not been dampened by the global financial crisis, the state-owned Energy Research Corporation, or EPE, said.

A report prepared by the EPE, which is part of the Energy and Mines Ministry, and included in the new "Energy Plan for the Decade" shows ethanol produced from sugar cane overtaking gasoline and becoming Brazil's main fuel for powering automobiles.

"Ethanol will account in 2017 for nearly 80 percent of the total volume of liquid fuels consumed by light vehicles" in Brazil, the EPE said.

Ethanol, made from crops such as sugar cane and corn, is basically grain alcohol. The alternative fuel is usually mixed with unleaded gasoline and can be pumped into vehicles at existing service stations.

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